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Top Oversight Dem: IRS scandal 'solved,' time to 'move on'

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Sunday said the scandal over the Internal Revenue Service targeting of Tea Party groups was “solved,” and that he was ready to “move on.”

“Based upon everything I've seen the case is solved,” said Cummings on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on to be frank with you.”

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Cummings said that interviews with IRS employees had shown that no one at the White House had a role in pushing for the higher scrutiny on Tea Party groups, citing the testimony of an IRS employee who described himself as a “conservative Republican.”

“I think this interview and these statements go a long way to what's showing that the White House was not involved in this,” he said.

Cummings expressed confidence that the agency’s new acting commissioner Danny Werfel would implement the recommendations of the Treasury inspector general report to ensure such targeting did not happen again.

“I think we need to make, the IRS by the way, the IG made some recommendations. Those recommendations are being adopted by the IRS. We've got a new commissioner in -- acting commissioner,” he said.

Cummings’s call though is unlikely to end the congressional scrutiny into the IRS scandal.

Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) called his statements urging an end to the probe “extreme and reckless.”

“I strongly disagree with Ranking Member Cummings' assertion that we know everything we need to know about inappropriate targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS and the case is, in his word, 'solved,'” said Issa in a statement. “His extreme and reckless assertions are a signal that his true motivation is stopping needed Congressional oversight and he has no genuine interest in working, on a bipartisan basis, to expose the full truth.”

Issa said he was “committed to leading a fact based investigation that fully exposes all relevant facts about IRS efforts to target Americans for their political beliefs.”